Jauhar - Occurrence

Occurrence

Jauhar and Saka were limited to the Hindu Kshatriya caste Rajputs who formed the nobility and ruling classes and castes of Rajasthan and northern India. There is extensive glorification of the practice in the local ballads and folk-histories of Rajasthan.

There are many instances of jauhar (and saka), but these are not well recorded. King Vijaipal's wife may have committed jauhar at the fort of Bayana, but this is based on ambiguous information from the fort of Timan Garh, now in the Karauli district of Rajasthan. The women-folk of the family of Silhadi, the military power-broker committed Jauhar led by his queen who was the daughter of Mewar's King Rana Sanga.

There are a number of other instances of jauhar on record, especially in the Khilji and Tughlaq times. Jauhar was committed during the Tughlaq campaign against the state of Kampili in the Raichur Doab and the siege of Anegondi - later to be famous as Vijayanagar. Searching for other instances of jauhar would help us to understand whether Jauhar was a Rajput prerogative or was practiced by other military peoples as well. The jauhar at Anegondi may have been committed only by a particular Rajput contingent in the fort, as after the battle, the besiegers took many prisoners from amongst the Rajput ruling and fighting classes and sent them to Delhi.

The best known cases of Jauhar are the three occurrences at the fort of Chittaur (Chittaurgarh, Chittorgarh), in Rajasthan, in 1303 AD, 1535 AD, and in 1568 AD. Jaisalmer has witnessed two occurrences of Jauhar, one in the year 1294 AD during the reign of Alauddin Khilji and second in the year 14 AD during the reign of Ferozshah Tuglaq. Another occurrence was in Chanderi.